DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
July 19, 2017 Wednesday


EQUIPMENT WAS REMOVED FROM TANKS ON THE NEW YEAR'S NIGHT

by Oleg Goryaev
Source: Kommersant, July 17, 2017, p. 4


HIGHLIGHT: CONTRACT SERGEANTS RECEIVED MINIMAL TERMS OF IMPRISONMENT
FOR THEFT OF RADIO STATIONS AND CONTROL BLOCKS FROM TANKS; Contract
servicemen were sentenced for theft of military property in the North
Caucasian Military District.



The North Caucasian district military court declined the appeals of
contract junior sergeants of the 102nd Russian military base (Gyumri,
Armenia) Dmitry Londarenko and Nikolai Onishchuk, 22. The fifth
garrison court sentenced them to one year and four months and one year
of imprisonment in penal colony respectively for theft of radio
stations and command blocks from tanks for the purpose of theft.

The instance of appeals of the North Caucasian district military court
heard the complaints about the sentences to Londarenko and Onishchuk
sentenced according to accusation of two episodes of theft committed
by a group of persons according to preliminary conspiracy (article 159
of the Criminal Code). According to documents of the case, junior
sergeants Londarenko and Onishchuk, 22, who came from Ukraine and
served since 2013 under contract in Armenian Gyumri as tank driver and
deputy commander of a platoon respectively decided to steal radio
stations from the technical park of Alagyaz training range. A local
resident who worked as a cook in the mess room was their accomplice.
In the afternoon of December 30 of 2016, the criminals drove in the
cook's car to the combat hardware park of the 102nd Russian military
base. Londarenko unnoticeable entered the garage, opened the lids of
hatches of three T-72B tanks and stole radio stations from them.
Afterwards, the fellow-servicemen carried the equipment to the car of
the accomplice who had to sell the stolen items. Nest night, the
sergeants decided to repeat the attempt but this time the cook gave
them his car but did not go with the servicemen and stayed home to
celebrate the New Year. Investigators found out that at 3 a.m. on
January 1 of 2017, the junior sergeants penetrated into the park of
combat vehicles again. Onishchuk was on the watch again and Londarenko
carried out five radio receivers, two radar stations and three command
blocks K-1. The criminals loaded the equipment into the car that they
drove back to the owner.

The theft was discovered in the morning of January 8, officers of the
military unit conducted investigation and found involvement of
Londarenko and Onishchuk into the crime. They did not deny the guilt
and said that the cook proposed them to commit the theft having
promised to pay 60,000 Armenian drams (approximately 7,500 rubles) for
one radio station. A criminal case was instituted against Londarenko
and Onishchuk about the fact of theft of property of the military unit
worth 455,200 rubles. Law-enforcement agencies of Armenia conducted
investigation against the cook. During preliminary investigation the
servicemen compensated the military unit for 132,000 rubles of loss.
Having studied the case about theft of radio equipment, the fifth
garrison military court sentenced Londarenko to one year and four
months of imprisonment and Onishchuk to one year of imprisonment in
penal colony. The court did not impose monetary penalties on the
sentenced but obliged them to repay the remaining damage worth 322,000
rubles.

The contract servicemen considered the sentence too harsh: their
families are in dire straits and they have no possibility to take care
about them. However, the instance of appeals considered the sentence
of the garrison court justified and declined the complaint.

[Translated from Russian]